During the Comic Con panel for The Expendables, it was difficult to tell if Sylvester Stallone was joking when he said that the whole point of doing The Expendables was that he got greedy. Seemed like a joke at the time. But now might might see reports highlighting how Stallone is reportedly pondering a prequel to First Blood that would star a younger actor. Given that Sly has said he was done with Rambo, that might make the ‘greedy’ comment seem less like a joke.

But wait — this ‘pondering’ is probably less noteworthy than some make it sound.

Here’s what Sly said to AICN about another Rambo movie, in response to fan prodding about making a prequel to First Blood with a different, younger actor as John Rambo:

I certainly think this is worth pondering because it’s intriguing to find the whys and wherefores of how people have come to become what they are. The traumas, the loss and the tragedy of being in Vietnam would certainly be a great challenge for a young actor and it would be ironic that Rambo directs younger Rambo after having played it for 20 plus years.

Granted, the other thing to come out of the Expendables panel was that Stallone is obviously a lot more interested in directing than acting at this point. That seemed to add context to his statements over the last year that he was done with sequels like Rambo. But a prequel, in which he could cast and boss around a young actor while still writing and directing one of the characters that made the Stallone name famous…that would be something else altogether.

But reading that quote, it doesn’t sound like something that is super high on the guy’s priority list.

Besides that, hopefully he realizes that First Blood gave us all the prequel info we need. It was a perfectly good take on the loss and tragedy of being in Vietnam without actually showing much of the war at all. Watch First Blood again now, and you’ll see a film that deals with the trauma of war in a respectable and very accessible way.

All that said, check out the set of Stallone Q&As at AICN if you’re a fan. There are a couple gems like this bit, where Stallone explains why he didn’t write, direct and star in The Godfather III when given the chance:

Francis [Ford Coppola] created duel masterpieces and it was egregious insensitivity to pull it away from him for monetary reasons. Therefore I took this idea to the sea of mediocrity and plunged it to the bottom.